When Storms are Gray
by lonelyfangoddess
Summary: Set in the middle of Microphony, Jarvis and Piper storm away from each other in a fit of anger. Will they find their way back to each other or will they be pulled apart-forever?


Jarvis had just finished yelling at her. ' _What the hell did I even do?_ ' Piper thought to herself. She blinked, dumbfounded. He stormed into his office and she found herself instinctively moving to follow him but stopped herself, thinking better of it. Piper walked into her own office instead, finding herself being less stunned and more angry by the minute.

"What right does that jerk have to yell at me for no reason? I didn't do anything!" Piper paced, talking to herself. She kicked the floor with her boot, finding it unsatisfactory and painful. She sat cross legged on the floor and groaned out loud. A throbbing pain in her temple told Piper she'd better get ready for another delightful stress headache, courtesy of another round of Kick The Piper. However, this one felt different. Piper put a hand to her forehead and suddenly saw black fade to her swirling office. She shook her head and blinked hard three times, which seemed to do the trick. Her vision cleared for a moment. She felt her heart start to beat faster, emptier and colder. 'What the heck is going on?' Piper thought to herself. Her temple throbbed. Her foot hurt and her chest ached. Her breathing became easier though, almost too easy, like she couldn't catch a breath after running a marathon. When she fell on her back from her seated position, Piper felt scared. She'd never felt anything like this before. Piper fought to win over her vision and crawled to her office door, desperate to catch anyone's attention from outside. 'Please, even Bowie would do,' she thought. Piper gasped for breath and worked hard to reach her door handle. Her hand just barely grazed it before her body quit on her and she fell unconscious.

* * *

While stewing, piping mad in his monster chair, Jarvis glared at his office. He glared at his desk, he glared at his shelves, he glared at his Lobster Trap game, and he glared at Bowie when he entered the room.

"Wow, Jarvis, I gotta say, usually only my mom looks at me like that," Bowie joked. It failed to make his best friend laugh but succeeded in making Jarvis' scowl deepen.

"What did you want, Bowie?" Jarvis said in a monotone voice. He couldn't believe the nerve of Piper, she was such a hypocrite! She says she accepts his apology but-oh no, wait! That's wrong. Of course she just had to go and be completely rude about it.

"I just wanted to say that, uh, well maybe it wasn't her fault?" Bowie said quietly, waiting for Jarvis' vocal assault to reach his ears. Jarvis lifted a brow.

"Not-not her fault? Are you kidding?" Jarvis said incredulously. A small, nagging part of his mind wanted to believe his beautiful, precious Piper hadn't been the same Piper as the one who'd called him earlier but he quickly squashed it with his anger.

"Yeah. You know, I bet you didn't even consider that maybe she just wanted to talk to you face to face, instead," said Bowie. Jarvis thought about that a moment. His scowl lightened, but returned the instant he realized his guard had fallen. Maybe he had been wrong. Maybe he shouldn't have yelled at her. Probably, most definitely shouldn't have yelled at her. Jarvis felt a little guilt turn into a lot of guilt and settle in the pits of his stomach along with his deep confusion.

"I'll just leave you to it," said Bowie, finally turning around to leave the room. Jarvis didn't say anything, his blood running white hot and his ears turning red with shame. Jarvis made to call Piper, but he kept getting voicemail. 'You really messed up this time, she doesn't even want to talk to you,' Jarvis thought to himself. He sat in his chair for a few more minutes before getting up the courage to apologize to Piper's face this time, not on the phone. He left his office, slunk up the five stairs, and knocked on her door. There was no reply. He knocked again. 'Maybe she left?' he thought. Jarvis knocked one more time and then forced open the door. He was going to apologize right now whether or not she wanted to hear it.

"Piper?" Jarvis said softly, his voice full of regret. Again, he got no reply.

The door hit something soft and light upon opening. Jarvis peeked around the corner and saw Piper lying sprawled on the ground, one hand reaching for the door and her body resting on the other. Jarvis moved her hand and opened the door fully to kneel down. He immediately tried to wake her up.

"Piper?" Jarvis nudged her side with a finger. She didn't move. Something was extremely wrong. Jarvis checked her breathing, and although she was, it was very faint. The same judgment was made for her heartbeat. Jarvis felt the panic bubble to the surface.

"Piper? Piper, wake up. Piper!" Jarvis yelled, shaking her arms and finding that he couldn't much stay still himself. Piper didn't so much as flutter her eyelids. "BOWIE!" Jarvis screamed out, trying his hardest not to freak out. Bowie came running into the room. Before he could so much as open his mouth, Jarvis told him to call an ambulance. When he didn't move, Jarvis threw his own phone at Bowie and set him in action. Jarvis collected Piper's hand into his own and blew warm air on it.

"Just hold on, Piper. Please, just hold on for me,"

* * *

When the ambulance arrived three minutes later, Jarvis thought it had taken a lot longer than just one hundred and eighty seconds. The paramedics loaded Piper onto a stretcher and carried her into the back of the vehicle. It all seemed surreal to Jarvis, like it was happening to someone else and not him. Not his Piper. It couldn't be, yet it was.

The paramedics were closing the doors of the ambulance when Jarvis finally snapped back to reality. "Wait! I have to be with her!" he screamed. A paramedic popped out of the front of the ambulance.

"Are you related to this girl?" the driver asked Jarvis.

"She's my girlfriend!" the lie rolled easily off his tongue. He climbed into the back with her and held her hand all the way to the hospital. Piper's heart rate dropped dangerously low in the back of the ambulance and Jarvis prayed for the first time in his life.

' _Piper, hold on. You can't leave. I need you, you can't leave me, Piper. Please_ ,' the thoughts kept bouncing around his head but they never lost meaning. The nurses wheeled her into the emergency room right away.

Jarvis willed Piper to be okay. He needed her to live. He couldn't believe he'd ever been mad at her to begin with. He had never felt such regret and guilt in his life as he did in this moment. Jarvis vowed that so long as she's okay, he will never take her for granted again. That was the moment Jarvis Raines broke down in the hospital waiting room.

* * *

A few hours later, Jarvis was allowed to see her. The nurses warned that Piper would be asleep for a solid two hours still before the sedatives wore off. Jarvis didn't mind. He sat down in the uncomfortable chair beside her hospital bed and took her cold hand in his. He leaned his forehead down to Piper's fingers and let his head hang for a few minutes. Jarvis started to talk quietly.

"I'm so sorry, Piper. This is all my fault. If I hadn't yelled at you and caused you to go into your office by yourself, maybe you wouldn't be here right now. I'm so sorry. I need you in my life, Piper. I took it for granted that you'd always be there and I-" Jarvis cut himself off with a choked sob. He balled his fist and brought it to his mouth, feeling his tears fall in between his clenched fingers. "I can't do this without you, Piper. I love you. I need you, forever and always. I'm so sorry," Jarvis finished. He rubbed Piper's hand warm, and leaned his head against her arm. He stayed that way for the remainder of the two hours that Piper was supposed to be knocked out, tears dripping silently down his face and falling on her blanket.

When Jarvis felt Piper's fingers twitch, he didn't notice at first. He had convinced himself already, multiple times, that she had moved when she had in fact not, and assumed this was another one of those moments. He could not have faked her deep intake of breath, however. Jarvis looked up excitedly and watched Piper's eyes flicker back and forth under her eyelids for a few minutes before they finally opened. When Piper seemed to take notice that Jarvis was next to her, he gave her a few seconds to adjust and then he wasted no time. He leaned forward and kissed her hard on the lips. It only took a moment for Piper to kiss him back. She tightened her warm grip on his hand and he did the same. When they finally broke apart, Piper was panting like she'd run a hundred yard sprint...or climbed her stairs. Both would make her winded.

"What happened?" Piper didn't bother asking where she was. Thanks to numerous hospital visits to her grandfather as a kid, she knew where she was just by the smell.

"Well, I just, uh, I mean I kinda kissed you bec-" Jarvis started.

"No, I know that, I couldn't possibly forgot it," Piper interjected, "I meant what happened as in, why am I here in the hospital?" Jarvis took a deep breath and blinked away tears that were threatening to fall when he pictured her almost dying in the ambulance.

"Well, I found you lying on the ground in your office. You ah, you wouldn't wake up, so I called Bowie into your office. He's the one who called 911, actually," Jarvis tactfully left out the fact that he'd been yelling and freaking out, "I went with you in the ambulance. You almost-" he choked on his own words, not wanting to say them. "You almost died in the back of that ambulance. Your heart rate was so low, Piper. I didn't know if you were going to make it. That was the single most terrifying moment in my entire life."

"Jarvis..." Piper said gently, brushing her fingers through his hair. She saw how the water collected in his eyes and how he lowered his head so she wouldn't see. She lifted his chin and brushed away the tear that streaked down his cheek.

"The doctor said you had heart palpitations and a slight blockage to your brain. Probably to do with stress, I think that's what they said. They fixed you up, though. You shouldn't have to have any more terrifying trips to the hospital like that, at least for a long time." Jarvis said, trying to feel the least bit relieved and utterly failing. "God, Piper, you almost-"

"But I didn't," Piper said firmly. She took his other hand into hers and clasped them together. "I'm still here and I'm planning on staying here and annoying you for as long as I can, Mr. Raines," Piper said, releasing his hand to poke him in the stomach. Jarvis finally laughed. Piper leaned back against her pillow and let out a deep breath.

"What's wrong?" Jarvis said worriedly.

"When do you think I can get out of here?"

* * *

After multiple procedures to make sure Piper wouldn't have to make another trip to the hospital, she was finally released. Jarvis had stayed with her the entire time; he hadn't even gone home to sleep. He just slept in the hospital chair until Piper woke him up and scooted over in her bed. Piper didn't think there was a better feeling than having him pull her closer in his sleep. In a way, she was sad the hospital trip was over because of that.

When they got back to Knickknack Toys, everyone had thrown Piper a not-surprise surprise party. They didn't want to shout surprise and scare her so recently after her heart palpitations, so they warned Jarvis who had warned Piper. All the lights were on and no one was hiding, anyway. Piper guessed they called it a surprise party because it was a surprise that they were throwing it. Jarvis had taken her hand right before they walked in, steadying her. Or so he called it. He was a lot friendlier towards her after that day, and oddly enough, if she hugged him, she could have sworn she heard his heart skip a beat.


End file.
